Racks, Darksword, The Gamers Guild & News

Lots of bits and pieces to get through in this newsletter. So first off, a bit of a plug for my new mates down at The Gamers Guild, Redhill, Surrey.

They have a webstore but unlike MH they have a bricks and mortar store too. They sell all sorts of goodies for wargaming, role-playing and modelling. Lots of collectable card games too. And they have gaming rooms.

If you’re in the area pop along and see them.

Paint Racks

A new product from those clever Basecrafts people. Laser cut self assembly paint racks.

The Basecrafts laser cut paint rack suitable for dropper bottles including those from the Reaper Master Series and HD series paint ranges.
Made from HDF it requires assembly with a little pva glue, not supplied.
Assembled size is :
290mm long
150mm high
165mm deep
Holds a maximum of 40 paint bottles.

You can even see a video I made about them below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCEcvZVvAc

The Video also shows off what the Reaper Learn to Paint kits contain, and a close up view of some Reaper Bones miniatures. Despite selling loads its not often I get the chance to handle them outside of their blisters. Well recently I did a deal and these came into my possession.

I’ve greyed them up a bit in an attempt to show off the levels of detail a bit better. Have a look at the close up pictures below to see what I mean.

These feature in the video too.

DarkSword Update

Finally the latest offerings from Darksword miniatures. As always worth a look for the stunning standard of painting alone. Click the pictures to go to the listings.

Painting Bones the Keeper40K Way.

I made reference in the video about a method MH forum admin and all around good egg Keeper40K, had developed for painting flexible miniatures. He’s painted lots of miniatures in different materials over his years in the hobby so I thought I’d post it below as it may be of use to others.

‘The biggest problem is that bones are a similar material to the old-school bendy airfix soldier: there is a danger of paint cracking and of paint loss when the figure bends.  Of course, you have exactly the same issue with metal, but the probability of bending is much higher (almost certain) for bones.
You can achieve fabulous and sturdy results on such figures, however, using thin layers of varnish at regular intervals whilst painting.  This is because the varnish is bendy, too, and 'locks in' the paint.  So the paint can crack, but it is held in place and when the bend is released, the paint all goes back perfectly in place and such cracks are invisible.
Also, you need to be even more careful in handling, as until you 'lock in' a layer (or layers) of paint, bending will cause cracking and paint loss.
As an example - although I'm afraid my paintwork is not that awesome, as this was my Week 5 entry of the Lead Painters League 3 on the Lead Adventure Forum, about 4 years ago.  These are Revell British Life Guards, from the Crimean period. 20mm scale and very bendy.  Although this photo was taken at the time, the figures are in exactly the same condition now, despite a lot of handling and transport and being on display at several shows.

So, I think you could get competition quality paintwork on a Bones figure, you just need to learn some variant techniques and plan slightly differently. 

With thanks to Keeper40K for that. If you have any tips you’d like to share with the other newsletter subscribers just send them in and I’ll pop them into the next update. You can also join the forum too.

Finally just a reminder that Figurepainter Magazine issue 6 is out and available to download.

Apparently the Christmas edition will have a centrefold of the editor himself !

TTFN

Tim